Page 83 of Revels on an Angel’s Grave

A fortune spun by Fated hands,

A choice taken from forsaken bands.

Two hearts staked through with malice.

She was ready to give up on those entirely for the day.

“I’m going again,” Emmeline said after a long stretch of frustrated silence.

All attention shifted to her as she took a seat on the floor before the low table, making sure the pillows were piled up nicely after the last session had been so strong it nearly made her faint.

Lola snapped her book closed. “Who this time?”

Emmeline didn’t want to read Anphrosia with Lola so close. If Starsearchers tied to the Fate of Cruelty and Adoration were still involved, she didn’t want to risk calling attention to Lola and somehow marking her.

Emmeline looked at the list of Fates she had yet to contact today, eyes landing on three words: Secrets and Greed. She couldn’t recall the last time she read him.

“Serchus.”

Lola’s lips pressed together, a wave of mourning in her blue eyes at the mention of Nico’s Fate, but she nodded quietly.

Emmeline grabbed the jar with crushed wildflowers and rolled a pinch in a slip of paper, lighting the end.

“I thought you didn’t like to smoke it?” Desmond asked, charcoal bouncing between his fingers.

“I usually don’t, but I want answers.” She’d smoke the crushed herbs, bathe in them, brew fucking tea with them if it would help.

For extra strength, Emmeline splashed bergamot oil on her wrists, the tart floral flooding the room. She lifted the roll to her lips and inhaled, blowing the smoke out slowly.

Starfire rippled eagerly at the edges of her vision, fingers stretching out for her, closing her window of vision into this realm.

On the second hit, it devoured her.

Emmeline dug her nails into the rug, the soft fabric against the pads of her fingers a reminder of where she was bodily.

She tumbled headfirst into the cosmic realm of readings, and when she opened her eyes it looked…different. Vibrant.

Typically, everything in a session was endless starry skies and rippling starfire, barren planes dotted by constellations. Now, she stood among very real rolling hills of night-blooming wildflowers, petals looking like stars pulled down from the sky. A breeze rippled around her, stirring the hem of her skirt around her ankles and rifling the tall silver grasses, their twinkling bristles bent beneath her boots.

The skies were swirls of galaxies. Blends of the richest purples and deep wine reds, navy blues and pops of blinding silver. The moon hung overhead, the light cool as it kissed her skin.

Even the air hummed like the space between the stars, a current making her feel more whole here than ever. All the crackling energy of today’s readings finally soothed, each bead of fortune slotting into place.

In her body, she pressed her palms into the floor. She was still present in both realms, yet this one was so much more real.

This was what she’d been trying to reach. Serchus was who she was meant to be reading.

Running water rumbled in the distance, but Emmeline couldn’t see where it came from. She could almost feel it, though, a stark contrast to the burning starfire she was used to.

Overhead, the stars shifted. A dozen rearranged into a constellation she didn’t recognize. No—not a constellation.

They stilled, and smaller stars filled in the gaps to form an ornate mask with feathers branching out on either side, curling up and around its carved edges. It cracked in two, a single bead spiraling down to the hills.

With a flash of light, a celestial male form stood before her, and Emmeline breathed, “Serchus.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Emmeline